Cognitive Code at TC40

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John Biggs just sent me a frantic Skype to look into Cognitive Code, a company he just discovered at TC40. After looking over its offerings, I’m forced to say that I’m sharing his excitement, albeit skeptically.

Cognitive Code is the developer of SILVIA (Symbolically Isolated, Linguistically Variable, Intelligence Algorithms), a conversationally adept AI. Its technology can be embedded into a multitude of products and can interpret an expansive amount of data. SILVIA supports variable input that allows it to understand meaning on a context-sensitive conceptual level. It has a dynamic output range that allows it to learn and utilize dialects and idioms. The software can also function in multiple languages and on multiple platforms. In 2008, Cognitive Code will launch Pocket SILVIA, a mobile platforms port of the complete runtime core of Pocket SILVIA.

The impressive element of this technology lies in its embeddability. Imagine, for instance, that SILVIA was embedded in a robot with sight and movement capabilities. Ordering it to “go get a red block” would send it on a search for a red block and it would then return to you with a block. Theoretically, anyway.

I’m always skeptical of technologies like this, despite the fact that I know they’re coming. Have we really progressed this far? Check out the Cognitive Code descriptions of SILVIA and let me know what you all think.

Update: The Patent Monkey kids just dug up the patent information filed by Cognitive Code CTO Leslie Spring while he worked for Sony. The technology from the Sony patent is inline with the SILVIA technology presented by Cognitive Code.